Leather Man at his  Totoket Cave  (Dan W. DeLuca Collection)	NOTE: Photos through the generosity of Dan W. DeLuca of Meriden, Connecticut. This Leather Man Researcher would like to be in contact and share information with others with information and/or photos regarding  the Leather Man.  To contact him, send an email to: Dan W. DeLuca	One of the first photos  of the Leather Man -  taken about June 9,  1885,  near New  Haven,  (Dan W. DeLuca Collection)
(Click for larger image)	Story of Fabulous  Leather Man  Who Roamed State  88 Years Ago Related. Page 4, Waterbury Republican, October 14, 1944	(Click for larger image)

It will be news to the younger set because this fascinating person died on the threshold of the Gay Nineties, and was discussed by New Englanders for 30 years hence.

Leroy W. Foote, who lives in Middlebury, works in Waterbury and is generally recognized as one of the area's leading speleological (cave) authorities, took it upon himself some 15 months ago to investigate several caves in this area which The Old Leather Man was supposed to have tenanted, and succeeded in rounding up, not a lot of material about caves, but an amazingly extensive store of lore about the character clad in leather.

And so, when it was announced that Mr. Foote would discuss The Old Leather Man at last night's meeting of the Mattatuck Historical Society in the society's galleries on West Main St., approximately 50 of the Waterbury area's historical connoisseurs turned out to hear what he had learned which might add to already-recognized facts about the fabulous Mr. Leather.

To begin at the beginning, as Mr. Foote did in his address last night, The Old Leather Man was a person who travelled about New England and parts of Upper New York State from a period extending from shortly before the Civil War to immediately before 1890.  He slept in caves when necessary during his journeys about the countryside, and he was engaged in no particular occupation, save that of seeing to that he got to the next stopping-off place on his itinerary in time for a good meal. But accounts of his visits to more than 50 towns and villages in Western Connecticut have spread and grown out of proportion until now, among many of the older families in Connecticut, The Old Leather Man is looked upon in the same light as Robinson Crusoe or Paul Bunyan.

Interviewed 200 People to get data

Mr. Foote said that in his investigation he had interviewed some 200 people who had either seen The Old Leather Man at some time in their childhood or listened knowingly to tales of his exploits from their parents.

About the caves in which "Mr. Leather" (no one, not even Mr. Foote knows what his real last name was) slept, Mr. Foote commented that many of them might be useful nowadays as suitable shelters in case of atomic attacks.  Thus he added a somewhat modern note to an otherwise historical subject when he said that many of those present might like to know the location of the caves if only for reference in case of an unsuspected visit from the A-bomb. He also commented that the caves should prove useful for shelter in the event of an April shower.

However, Mr. Foote has uncovered what he considers some fairly authentic data on Mr. Leather's early life.  His story, which he said was based on popular legend which, combined with tradition, makes it reasonably plausible, holds that The Old Leather Man was born about 1845 in Lyons, France.

To quote Mr. Foote, The Old Leather Man's parents "wanted a family and had a son, whom they called Jules." Jules was educated in the schools of Lyons, he said, and very soon, the young Frenchman was fortunate in meeting a mademoiselle. To further quote Mr. Foote, "they met, as French couples do some times, they fell in love."

Mr. Foote identified the young woman as Marguerite Laron, whose father was a prosperous leather dealer. But Jule's parents were only lowly woolen merchants, and hence not quite acceptable socially to M. Laron.

Jules, a bold and impetuous lad, went directly to M. Laron and laid his cards on the table, stating that he was in love with his daughter and willing to do anything to win her hand. M. Laron admired Jule's dash and, forgetting social stature, took him into his leather firm as a junior executive.

The young Frenchman was doing fine until he began speculating with M. Laron's cash in the leather market, Mr. Foote explained. Soon the bottom dropped from the leather market, M. Laron was ruined, Jules was fired and subsequently lost the affection of his inamorata.

Jules went quite mad as a result and, as Mr. Foote pointed out, was consigned "to one of what were generally known in those days as madhouses."  But Jules stayed there only two years before he broke out, Mr. Foote.

First Seen in State about 1859.

It was about 1859, Mr. Foote said, that The Old Leather Man was first seen in Connecticut.

A resident of Harwinton, whom Mr. Foote interviewed, claims that he was first seen in that town in that year. Residents of several other Western Connecticut villages claim to have seen him about the same period, he said.

From his research notes, Mr. Foote described The Old Leather Man as slightly shorter than average height. He was garbed completely in hand-fashioned leather togs and was never known to utter a word, speaking merely in grunts and giving his assent in nods. when annoyed, he said, he was in the habit of flaying the air about him with a crude, manufactured walking stick. But Mr. Foote declared, he was never known to have done harm to anyone and was generally regarded as a humble, harmless person.

A Forestville resident by the name of Hotchkiss once decided to map out The Old Leather Man's itinerary and found that he covered approximately 366 miles every 34 days. This broken down in terms of Western Connecticut means that he visited, with unerring regularity, some 50 Connecticut towns in every 34 days, to say nothing of his wanderings in Northern Connecticut and upper New York state.  Mr. Foote figures that Mr. Leather's stopping-off places in Western Connecticut probably numbered nearer 70, because of various interviews with residents in towns never mentioned in Mr. Hotchkiss' report.

Wore Leather Except for Undershirt

The Old Leather Man completed the same itinerary of towns every 34 days for 29 years, Mr. Foot said. In that time, Mr. Leather always stopped at the same farms, ate the same meals there at the same hour and generally kept a fairly regular time schedule as regards his nocturnal habitation of Connecticut caves. Very often, Mr. Foote said, The Old Leather Man slept in a rock shelter in preference to a cave, because in the winter months these were more easily heated.

Clad completely in leather,except for a woolen undershirt, The Old Leather Man was known to bathe only under duress.

His boots were of course of leather, with wooden soles, and he wore a leather, peaked cap similar to those in vogue in the post-Civil War era. Besides this, he had any one of a number of leather accessories, including leather mittens, a leather accessory kit, tobacco pouch and coat.

A New haven woman claims that his belt was fashioned from a harness "hold rein" and a few persons claim to have known of his receiving gifts of shoes from which he clipped the uppers and attached the soles to his leather uppers.

Said to have stopped at Woodbury Tannery.

Mr. Foote's investigation has all but proved that The Old Leather Man was in the habit of stopping at the Woodbury tannery of Alex Gordon, where repairs were made to his costume gratis, because The Old Leather Man was never known to have any money.

Not that he wasn't offered money  many times by children. But, Mr. Foote explained, when the children gave him pennies as he passed through the school yard at noon time, he would leave them on the fence post for the children to discover later.  "A sort of hide-and-seek game," Mr. Foote added.

The Old Leather Man once received some money for a photograph he allowed to be taken, and a wealthy family was reported to have left him a fortune, but the reports were never authenticated, Mr. Foote said.

But there was little doubt that The Old Leather man was a craftsman and an educated man besides.  Mr. Foote said he fashioned his own tools, such as an ax, a knife and a bucket, from the rawest of materials, and that he carried with him at all times a French Bible.

Mr. Foote recounted various incidents of Old Leather Man lore culled form several towns in this area.  But, he was cautious to point out, for every one that is credible, there are a dozen lively folk tales about the Old Leather Man which make for a good bedtime prose and add nothing to a working knowledge of the man. The apocryphal sections of The Old Leather Man legend would fill volumes and would rival in charm and fantasy the works of the brothers Grimm.

The Old Leather Man died in March 1889 in Briarcliff, N. Y., on a farmed owned by George Dell. He was buried in Sparta, N.Y. Cemetery, in a single plot just inside the cemetery gate. The plot is covered by dogwood blossoms and is marked only by a rested pipe nearly obscured by brush.  Mr. Foote himself discovered this grave, after the only living person who knew where The Old Leather Man was buried, George Dell's daughter, died a few days before Mr. Foote could reach her.

Among several questions Mr. Foote answered after his talk, was the query as to how The Old Leather Man could have been in so many placed at once. For surely, if one was to believe the various apparently-authentic accounts of Mr. Leather's appearance in so many widely-scattered places at the same time, at least two of them must be true.

Well, Mr. Foote, pointed out, there's always this: Maybe there was more then one Old Leather Man.  Almost all of the 50 persons present nodded agreement to this theory.
 

Page 4, Waterbury Republican, October 14, 1944
[Thanks to Mrs. Fred (Myrtle) Rowland for allowing us to copy this news clipping]
 
 
 
 

Story of Fabulous Leather Man Who Roamed State 88 Years Ago Related.
 

To many of the teen-ager set this will come as news--but there is a New England legend which pops up perennially concerning an amiable character known as The Old Leather Man.

It will be news to the younger set because this fascinating person died on the threshold of the Gay Nineties, and was discussed by New Englanders for 30 years hence.

Leroy W. Foote, who lives in Middlebury, works in Waterbury and is generally recognized as one of the area's leading speleological (cave) authorities, took it upon himself some 15 months ago to investigate several caves in this area which The Old Leather Man was supposed to have tenanted, and succeeded in rounding up, not a lot of material about caves, but an amazingly extensive store of lore about the character clad in leather.

And so, when it was announced that Mr. Foote would discuss The Old Leather Man at last night's meeting of the Mattatuck Historical Society in the society's galleries on West Main St., approximately 50 of the Waterbury area's historical connoisseurs turned out to hear what he had learned which might add to already-recognized facts about the fabulous Mr. Leather.

To begin at the beginning, as Mr. Foote did in his address last night, The Old Leather Man was a person who travelled about New England and parts of Upper New York State from a period extending from shortly before the Civil War to immediately before 1890.  He slept in caves when necessary during his journeys about the countryside, and he was engaged in no particular occupation, save that of seeing to that he got to the next stopping-off place on his itinerary in time for a good meal. But accounts of his visits to more than 50 towns and villages in Western Connecticut have spread and grown out of proportion until now, among many of the older families in Connecticut, The Old Leather Man is looked upon in the same light as Robinson Crusoe or Paul Bunyan.

Interviewed 200 People to get data

Mr. Foote said that in his investigation he had interviewed some 200 people who had either seen The Old Leather Man at some time in their childhood or listened knowingly to tales of his exploits from their parents.

About the caves in which "Mr. Leather" (no one, not even Mr. Foote knows what his real last name was) slept, Mr. Foote commented that many of them might be useful nowadays as suitable shelters in case of atomic attacks.  Thus he added a somewhat modern note to an otherwise historical subject when he said that many of those present might like to know the location of the caves if only for reference in case of an unsuspected visit from the A-bomb. He also commented that the caves should prove useful for shelter in the event of an April shower.

However, Mr. Foote has uncovered what he considers some fairly authentic data on Mr. Leather's early life.  His story, which he said was based on popular legend which, combined with tradition, makes it reasonably plausible, holds that The Old Leather Man was born about 1845 in Lyons, France.

To quote Mr. Foote, The Old Leather Man's parents "wanted a family and had a son, whom they called Jules." Jules was educated in the schools of Lyons, he said, and very soon, the young Frenchman was fortunate in meeting a mademoiselle. To further quote Mr. Foote, "they met, as French couples do some times, they fell in love."

Mr. Foote identified the young woman as Marguerite Laron, whose father was a prosperous leather dealer. But Jule's parents were only lowly woolen merchants, and hence not quite acceptable socially to M. Laron.

Jules, a bold and impetuous lad, went directly to M. Laron and laid his cards on the table, stating that he was in love with his daughter and willing to do anything to win her hand. M. Laron admired Jule's dash and, forgetting social stature, took him into his leather firm as a junior executive.

The young Frenchman was doing fine until he began speculating with M. Laron's cash in the leather market, Mr. Foote explained. Soon the bottom dropped from the leather market, M. Laron was ruined, Jules was fired and subsequently lost the affection of his inamorata.

Jules went quite mad as a result and, as Mr. Foote pointed out, was consigned "to one of what were generally known in those days as madhouses."  But Jules stayed there only two years before he broke out, Mr. Foote.

First Seen in State about 1859.

It was about 1859, Mr. Foote said, that The Old Leather Man was first seen in Connecticut.

A resident of Harwinton, whom Mr. Foote interviewed, claims that he was first seen in that town in that year. Residents of several other Western Connecticut villages claim to have seen him about the same period, he said.

From his research notes, Mr. Foote described The Old Leather Man as slightly shorter than average height. He was garbed completely in hand-fashioned leather togs and was never known to utter a word, speaking merely in grunts and giving his assent in nods. when annoyed, he said, he was in the habit of flaying the air about him with a crude, manufactured walking stick. But Mr. Foote declared, he was never known to have done harm to anyone and was generally regarded as a humble, harmless person.

A Forestville resident by the name of Hotchkiss once decided to map out The Old Leather Man's itinerary and found that he covered approximately 366 miles every 34 days. This broken down in terms of Western Connecticut means that he visited, with unerring regularity, some 50 Connecticut towns in every 34 days, to say nothing of his wanderings in Northern Connecticut and upper New York state.  Mr. Foote figures that Mr. Leather's stopping-off places in Western Connecticut probably numbered nearer 70, because of various interviews with residents in towns never mentioned in Mr. Hotchkiss' report.

Wore Leather Except for Undershirt

The Old Leather Man completed the same itinerary of towns every 34 days for 29 years, Mr. Foot said. In that time, Mr. Leather always stopped at the same farms, ate the same meals there at the same hour and generally kept a fairly regular time schedule as regards his nocturnal habitation of Connecticut caves. Very often, Mr. Foote said, The Old Leather Man slept in a rock shelter in preference to a cave, because in the winter months these were more easily heated.

Clad completely in leather,except for a woolen undershirt, The Old Leather Man was known to bathe only under duress.

His boots were of course of leather, with wooden soles, and he wore a leather, peaked cap similar to those in vogue in the post-Civil War era. Besides this, he had any one of a number of leather accessories, including leather mittens, a leather accessory kit, tobacco pouch and coat.

A New haven woman claims that his belt was fashioned from a harness "hold rein" and a few persons claim to have known of his receiving gifts of shoes from which he clipped the uppers and attached the soles to his leather uppers.

Said to have stopped at Woodbury Tannery.

Mr. Foote's investigation has all but proved that The Old Leather Man was in the habit of stopping at the Woodbury tannery of Alex Gordon, where repairs were made to his costume gratis, because The Old Leather Man was never known to have any money.

Not that he wasn't offered money  many times by children. But, Mr. Foote explained, when the children gave him pennies as he passed through the school yard at noon time, he would leave them on the fence post for the children to discover later.  "A sort of hide-and-seek game," Mr. Foote added.

The Old Leather Man once received some money for a photograph he allowed to be taken, and a wealthy family was reported to have left him a fortune, but the reports were never authenticated, Mr. Foote said.

But there was little doubt that The Old Leather man was a craftsman and an educated man besides.  Mr. Foote said he fashioned his own tools, such as an ax, a knife and a bucket, from the rawest of materials, and that he carried with him at all times a French Bible.

Mr. Foote recounted various incidents of Old Leather Man lore culled form several towns in this area.  But, he was cautious to point out, for every one that is credible, there are a dozen lively folk tales about the Old Leather Man which make for a good bedtime prose and add nothing to a working knowledge of the man. The apocryphal sections of The Old Leather Man legend would fill volumes and would rival in charm and fantasy the works of the brothers Grimm.

The Old Leather Man died in March 1889 in Briarcliff, N. Y., on a farmed owned by George Dell. He was buried in Sparta, N.Y. Cemetery, in a single plot just inside the cemetery gate. The plot is covered by dogwood blossoms and is marked only by a rested pipe nearly obscured by brush.  Mr. Foote himself discovered this grave, after the only living person who knew where The Old Leather Man was buried, George Dell's daughter, died a few days before Mr. Foote could reach her.

Among several questions Mr. Foote answered after his talk, was the query as to how The Old Leather Man could have been in so many placed at once. For surely, if one was to believe the various apparently-authentic accounts of Mr. Leather's appearance in so many widely-scattered places at the same time, at least two of them must be true.

Well, Mr. Foote, pointed out, there's always this: Maybe there was more then one Old Leather Man.  Almost all of the 50 persons present nodded agreement to this theory.